


your smile's a frown turned upside down

by misura



Category: The Great Wall (2017)
Genre: First Time, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2019-12-05
Packaged: 2021-02-26 15:47:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21720640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: Tovar chuckled and shook his head. "You almost had me. Almost.""Admit it, I totally had you." William grinned. "Should have seen your face."
Relationships: William Garin/Pero Tovar
Comments: 11
Kudos: 60
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	your smile's a frown turned upside down

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jedibuttercup](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jedibuttercup/gifts).



"This tastes like you boilt your boots."

William rolled his eyes. All right, so the meat could have been a little fresher, but beggars, choosers, and besides, he'd done the best he could. "It's not so bad."

They'd found a nice place to make camp, near a river which flowed slow enough to allow bathing and wasn't cold enough to freeze a man's toes off in the process either. 

"No. It is worse. I only said that to spare your feelings," Tovar said. Not letting the taste stop him from eating everything that was on his plate, William noted. "I know you can get a little sensitive when it comes to certain things."

"Look, you don't like it, no one's forcing you to eat it."

"I never said I didn't like it," Tovar said. "In fact, these are probably the nicest boilt boots I have ever tasted. You must be truly talented, amigo."

William swallowed several sarcastic replies and settled for, "Thank you."

Tovar chewed in silence for five, ten seconds. William was counting down in his head, knowing it wouldn't be more than a minute before Tovar'd start up again, like clockwork. Very attractive clockwork, admittedly, and handy to have around in a fight.

"Still, talented or not, there's only so much a man can do, eh? Maybe if you could have actually killed something today, we could have had a feast tonight, instead of this slop."

William gritted his teeth. The shot had been easy. He could have made it in his sleep. That something had startled the rabbit just when he'd been about to get them some nice dinner was not his fault. These things happened. Bad luck, was all.

"You want to be the one to go hunting tomorrow, be my guest," he said. A mistake: Tovar being Tovar and the world being full of injustice, Tovar'd probably trip over a fat, juicy rabbit the moment he stepped away from the camp. Then he'd never hear the end of it. Tovar the Mighty Hunter would go down in oral history, the story told again and again.

Tovar sighed. "I'm sorry. I only wish - it is nice, to eat good food. To sleep in a real bed. To have money."

"Agreed," William said. "Unfortunately, right now, we can get, let's see, _none_ of those three things, so why bother complaining about it, hey? We're alive, we're healthy, what more can a guy want out of life?"

"Someone to warm his blankets," Tovar said. "And his cock."

"Well," William said. The first, he and Tovar had done often enough. Out on the road, you didn't have much choice: it was that, or freeze to death and they both had too many things to do for the latter.

"You understand, I do not speak of a wife," Tovar said. "A wife means a family. A home. Settling down. I want none of that, not yet. But sometimes, I lie awake at night, and I wonder."

William felt they were getting on thin ice here. "About what?"

Tovar gave him a look. William felt himself flush. He wished they'd still had wine, to use that as an excuse when they'd remember this conversation tomorrow. "You know what."

To be fair, William had done his own fair share of lying awake, thinking. It never seemed worth risking their partnership for, though. He wasn't _that_ hard up for company, after all, and there was always his own hand. As long as you closed your eyes and used your imagination, that worked just fine. No need to make things awkward or, worse, risk losing everything.

"I - " he said. On the one hand, as long as neither of them made the first move, they'd never get further than the lying-awake-and-wondering stage of their relationship. "I uh, guess I do. Yeah."

On the other hand, Tovar was a total asshole who might be doing nothing more than pulling his leg.

"Hm," Tovar said, which didn't seem promising.

William decided the thing to do now would be to change the subject. "Anyway, you were wrong, you know."

"About what?" Tovar sounded distracted, which could mean anything. Disappointed he hadn't been able to push his joke any further, or regretful that once again, neither of them had gotten around to conveying that yeah, a bit of sodomy (to quote the Pope) might be just what their partnership lacked to give it that tiny bit of extra pizzazz.

"Dinner," William said. "I mean, please. You really think I'd sacrifice my boots simply to put some food into your belly? Those are some quality boots, man. I killed someone for these boots."

Tovar scowled. "The way I remember it, I killed three. For boots I didn't even get to wear."

"Hey, you snooze, you lose," William said.

"So whose boots did I eat just now?" Tovar asked, then frowned. "Not - "

"Again, you snooze, you lose," William said, trying to keep a straight face.

Tovar looked at him. His expression was half-outraged and half-incredulous. They'd both left their boots by the river, to dry along with their washed clothes.

"What?" William asked, putting on his best innocent face.

Tovar chuckled and shook his head. "You almost had me. Almost."

"Admit it, I totally had you." William grinned. "Should have seen your face."

"I was humoring you," Tovar said. "You need a bit of coddling from time to time, to keep you from complaining too much. You get very boring when you are unhappy. Very bad company."

"So I'm great company when I'm happy, huh? Hard to keep your hands off of me? Do I make you want to write poetry and sing love songs?" William didn't know if it was smart to push this, but part of him just wanted to get it over with by now.

He'd admit that yes, he did have certain urges His Holiness would not have approved of (though depending on who you talked to, His Holiness was said to be quite the kinky bastard himself) and Tovar would make it clear that he did not, and that would be that. They'd both know where they stood.

"Someone like you could never appreciate my poetry. It would be wasted on you," Tovar said, adding something in Spanish. William'd been getting better at it, but the only words he could make out were 'idiot', 'save' and 'love'.

"Kind of like my culinary talents are wasted on you, huh?"

Tovar sighed. "Given what you had to work with, it was a fine meal. There. Happy now?"

"I'll find us something good tomorrow," William said.

"I know you will," Tovar replied. "Your bow is what makes it worth putting up with all your problems and whining and lying and cheating in a friendly game of dice when we're only playing for beans."

"Hey. Those beans made for some damn good eating," William said. "But, thanks. I guess. I'm trying to think of a reason for why I put up with you, but I gotta admit, kind of drawing a blank. Sorry."

"Ha! That one is easy. You desire me. You said it yourself, amigo. You lie awake at night. Thinking. Wondering. Fantasizing about what it would be like."

All right, so that was getting a bit blatant. Tovar might not be _wrong_ , exactly, but still.

"You know, it would be good. The best you've ever had," Tovar said.

"Those are some big claims," William said. This could still be a joke - or rather: if either of them backed down, they'd still be able to write it off as a joke. He no longer thought Tovar was actually joking as such, which meant - well.

He did wonder what had made Tovar so sure that William wouldn't run away screaming.

"In fact, after something like that, I almost think you're going to have to put your money where your mouth is," he said.

"My mouth is right here," Tovar said. If he felt at all nervous or uncertain, he did it fantastically well.

"It's an expression. It means - well, never mind." William tried to think of the smart thing to do next. Barring that, he'd settle for the thing to do that would let him keep Tovar as a friend but also as something a little bit different. Not more, William didn't think, just different. Extra.

Tovar sighed. "Am I going to have to do everything?"

William opened his mouth to point out that actually, he'd washed their clothes, aired their boots, tried to hunt down some dinner, gathered firewood, built up the fire and cooked. Compared to Tovar setting up the tent, he rather felt the opposite applied.

Before he could start the list, though, Tovar had closed the distance between them and kissed him.

It wasn't a bad kiss. Quite good, actually. William'd had worse. Better, too, he felt sure, even if he couldn't remember any of them this very moment, which was understandable, given what Tovar's hands were getting up to.

("So hey, I forgot to ask this earlier, but what do you wonder when _you_ lie awake at night?" William asked. He felt a little bit sore and a lot satisfied. Warm, too, which was always a nice bonus.)

("I wonder why I had to pick a man for my companion who snores loud enough to wake the dead," Tovar said. "It is very annoying.")

("Oh," William said, deciding he wasn't going to apologize for anything he did in his sleep, particularly something that might not even be true. "I admit, that's not as romantic as I'd hoped.")

("Stay quiet tonight and let me get a good night's sleep, and I'll write you the sweetest song ever sung.")

("Deal.")


End file.
